Story+1988-02-25+Worcester,+MA

"Ready for a date"
 * 25.02.88 Worcester, MA, intro to ´Tunnel Of Love´**

´´So how the hell´ve you been ? (cheers)....hey man, how you been...good to see you....I ain´t seen you in a little while....a couple of years or so....what´ve you been doing ?....(?) married now....had the kid ...what do you got ? oh-oh, oh-oh, here come the baby pictures....it´s the little Big Man.... where´d you get that little saxophone and stuff ? (chuckles)....he looks good, he looks good... man, we used to sit on this bench in 1975....we used to watch, watch the girls go by at 12.30 lunch-hour when they came home from work....(?) here comes somebody in a red dress, in the red skirt, the red skirt.....(?)....man, I remember I was with you, I was with you when you met your wife....you know, we were overseas and she came in the room....and you, you came back to my room that night and you said ´Oh, I met the girl I´m gonna marry´ but you said that about every girl that you had every time so.....(?) but that time you meant it, you meant it, you did, you know, that´s nice, that´s nice....I met my wife on TV, it´s not as romantic, you know (chuckles)....what happened to those, remember those guys that used to hang out around here ?....hey, Ritchie, Ritchie !....they´re back there somewhere.....oh yeah.... remember how it is the first time you see somebody come walking in, how you felt ?....it´s nice....well, dinnertime....take care, good to see you, alright, see you later....”
 * 25.02.88 Worcester, MA, intro to ´All That Heaven Will Allow´**

”It’s good to see you again (cheers)....missed you....when I was....oh, I guess about 8 or 9 ....me and my sister who was a year younger than me....we slept in the same room, in the same bed in this little corner house....and the head of the bed was right by the window.....and in the summertime we´d sleep with the window open.....and right across the street....kind of directly opposite the window, there was another house....that a woman named, uh, Audrey and her three children and her husband Bill lived in....and uh, Bill, he worked in a meat-packing plant.....down south, like a lot of the men in the neighbourhood did.....and, uh, Audrey during the day she´d stay home with the kids and I can always remember my mother saying how crazy she was about her, about her kids.....and it wasn’t like she....she didn´t fuss over ´em a lot or anything, you know, but it was just something in the way that she was with them....like in the summer, she´d sit out on the backporch with her little girl and it was just something about the way that she would brush her hair....she´d take the brush and she´d run it down the back of her hair and then she´d follow it with her other hand and kind of smooth the hair down....the back of the little girl´s neck.....and uh.....Bill, most of the guys, I guess, in the neighbourhood´d get home around 6, that´s when my old man would come home if he wasn´t working on the nightshift.....and Bill, sometimes he’d come home and sometimes he wouldn’t and sometimes he’d come home and, and he’d had too much to drink.....from our bed we could hear ‘em argueing.....and I think when you’re a kid....one of the scariest things is hearing, is hearing grown-ups argue especially if it’s in your house, you get really frightened....now, I can remember one night....that Bill came home late.....and they really got into it and they started fighting and you could hear stuff, stuff breaking and then all of a sudden I remember Audrey calling for help.....and I ran in my mother´s bedroom and my father wasn´t there and I got my mother out of bed and I brought her into our room....and Audrey was calling for help, Audrey was calling for somebody to call the police....but nobody did....and the next day....I remember I was in the backyard and I crawled under a ....sheet she was hanging and I looked up at her and I could see that the side of her face was bruised and that her eye was swollen and she looked down at me and she walked quickly into the house.....but then she turned around and came to the screen door....and stood looking out at me like there was something that she wanted me to see.....and people talked and time passed.....and then I moved away....but the older I got, for some reason the more....the more I kept coming back to that street ....like there was something that.....was missing, there was some missing part of me that was there, that I still couldn´t find....and I´d drive my car down late in the summertime, park on the corner, walk up the street and re-trace the cracks that I used to walk on when I was a kid....and I’d look at all the houses and they´d be all lit up and I´d imagine like at night when the houses are lit, they would always look so safe inside..... and they look happy.....and one night, it was late in the summer, I came, took my drive, parked the car on the corner....started to walk up the street and I saw a woman standing in front of Audrey’s house.....and she had long brown hair and I thought, I was sure it was her so I started walking a little faster and I must’ve scared her because as I got close to her, I could see that it was somebody else....and so I was kind of embarrassed and I walked on down the street, across the highway ....and saw a friend of mine.....but later that night when I walked back down that street.....I felt different...I felt like I had changed, that somewhere along the way.....I had become a man and that the people who were kind to me or hurtful to me when I was a little boy were gone from that street forever.....and that the people in those houses were strangers just like me, doing the best that they could to hold on to the things that they loved....and I walked down the street.....and I got in my car....and I drove home to my house and to my family because I knew that street wasn´t mine any more .....”
 * 25.02.88 Worcester, MA, intro to ´Spare Parts´**

”Now, are there any brave men out there in the audience tonight ? (cheers)....are there any macho men out there tonight ? (cheers).....well, I’ve known men....that would climb mountains, that would swim rivers.....that would wrestle with a grizzly bear.....but there´s just one thing that they were afraid of.....there´s one thing that scares them to death.....there´s one thing that gets their knees shaking....you wanna know what that is ?....I’m gonna tell you what that is.....it´s L....U...V, love, let me hear you say it.....well, now, girl, I’m talking to you too now....I’ve seen women that would jump out of airplanes at 30,000 feet....that´d get in a canoe and go down the Amazon River wrestling with snakes and crocodiles.....I´ve even seen women that would date the horn section in this band....but there´s just one thing that they´re afraid of, there´s just one thing and you know what that is, that´s love....now I’m down here tonight because I’ve got a confession to make....I´ve got something to get off my chest, I´ve got lay my burden down right here tonight.....because I have sinned !....and I don’t care who you bring down here, man....you can bring Hulk Hogan down here, you can bring down the Road Warriors, you can bring down George the Animal Steele, I´ll take ´em on.... you can bring down Andre the Giant, I´ll take him on.....I don’t care who you bring down here.....I ain´t afraid of those kinds of things....what I’ve got to say is.....what I have to say is ....what I´ve got to confess is....I’m a Coward ....when it comes to love.....save me, boys....”
 * 25.02.88 Worcester, MA, intro to ´I´m a Coward´**

´´I was reading the papers and, uh....now, dig this....”
 * 25.02.88 Worcester, MA, intro to ´Part Man Part Monkey´**

´´Thanks....oh....I´d forgotten how much work this is ! (chuckles)....it´s fun too, though (chuckles)....I guess the hardest thing....I know one of the hardest things for me over the past ten years has been trying....to understand what growing up....and being a man is about and.... trying to find out how to make some sort of home for myself....and then trying to hold on to it ....which is a hard thing for anybody to do....I know that, that my dad did his best....to show me what that is about....and uh, and things get pretty confusing....now, when I was 20, when I was 24 years old I wrote this song....and it was about a guy and a girl....who wanted to run and keep on running.....and uh, as I got older, I realised that that....that is my song and maybe ....maybe that was your song too....but I also realised that, as I got older, that I didn´t want it to be....that I wanted to....learn how to make a home for myself, learn how to fit in (?).... ´cause there´s really nothing, there´s nothing in being homeless....so....anyway, I wish you luck on your....your trip and do this for you....”
 * 25.02.88 Worcester, MA, intro to ´Born to Run´**

´´Gotta do a love song....just wanna thank everybody for coming down to the show....and this is for you, God bless you and the one you love....”
 * 25.02.88 Worcester, MA, intro to ´Can´t Help Falling in Love with You´**

´´Should I go for the heart attack ? (cheers)...on the first night ? (cheers)....(?)....”
 * 25.02.88 Worcester, MA, intro to ´Detroit Medley´**

”Hey man, how you been doing ?.....I haven’t seen you in a little while....what’ve you been up to ?.....you got.....(?) married, got the kid now, huh ?.....(?) that big ? No.....he is, he’s about that big and he’s only about.....how old is he ?.....he’s three, he’s half as big as Clarence is now.....he’s gonna be the Little Big Man (cheers).....he’s got no saxophone (chukles)....oh man....we used to sit, we used to sit on this bench.....at lunchtime.....you know.....back in like 1974, 75 (cheers).....we used to bring our records with us.....sit ‘em on our lap and hope that the girls would.....notice (chuckles) .....it was about 12.30, they’d always be coming by.....here they come.....here comes somebody....in the blue....the one in the blue blouse, here she comes, man.....(laughs) I remember I was with you, I was with you when you met your wife....you know....she came in that room.....and you came back that night and we sat on the bus.....Clarence come back and said ‘Man....I met the girl I’m gonna marry’....you know....but Clarence would always say that after every girl that he would meet (cheers)(chuckles)....he would mean it too, though....wow....but that time you really meant it (chuckles)....you know.....remember how it feels like that first time when you see..... when you see somebody come walking in the room......you know....hey Richie, do it (?), man ......it feels like that (chuckles).....looking good.....man, I gotta get home at dinnertime, can’t be late now.....I gotta be in bed by like eleven o’clock now, you wouldn’t believe it......”
 * 28.02.88 Worcester, MA, intro to ‘All That Heaven Will Allow’:**

´´Now, have you ever felt lonely ?....so lonely that you wanted to cry, cry, cry....that´s when you need a little help....you need somebody....somewhere.....that you can just reach out.... that makes you feel like a human being....hey, baby....´´
 * 25.02.88 Worcester, MA, end of ´Dancing in the Dark´**

´´On the piano, Professor Roy Bittan....on guitar and vocals, Miss Patti Scialfa....on the drums, the Mighty Max Weinberg....on the guitar, Mr.Nils Lofgren....on the bass, Mr. Garry W.Tallent....on the organ, Mr.Dan Federici....and back on the horns, we got Mr.Ed Manion on the baritone, we got a young man, Mr.Mario Cruz on the saxophone.....Mr.Mark Pender on the trumpet....Mike Spengler on the trumpet....and last but not least, the most sensuous man in the state of New Jersey....a man whose sexual vitatlity boggles reality....Richie La Bamba Rosenberg on the trombone....and of course, the one, the only....the handsomest man you´ve ever seen....´Big Man´, Clarence Clemons on the saxophone....´´
 * 25.02.88 Worcester, MA, middle of ´Light of Day´**

//Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi//